LITCHFIELD >> Smaller than a pea, an implantable telescope is helping the elderly see again. Litchfield's own Dr. Randolph Kinkade is the first in the state to offer these implants, which combat Age-Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, the leading cause of blindness in older Americans.

Those afflicted with AMD begin to lose sight in the center of their field of view, with the symptoms spreading outwards until the person eventually goes blind.

"More than 15 million Americans are affected by some form of AMD," a press release from Dr. Kinkade's office states. "The number of Americans afflicted with macular degeneration is expected to double with the rapid aging of the U.S. population."

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The Implantable Miniature Telescope, or IMT, was invented by Dr. Isaac Lipshitz and is manufactured by a company called VisionCare, in conjunction with the CentraSight treatment plan.

According to VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies Marketing Manager Reena Mishra, Lipshitz conversed with an entreprenuial patient Yossi Gross during a professional consultation in 2000, where the idea for VisionCare, and later, the IMT, was conceived.

"[Lipshitz] described an idea he had for helping patients suffering from end-stage AMD by implanting a very small telescope in their eye. The entrepreneur, inspired by the idea, began investigating the possibility of an intraocular device, which eventually led to today's tiny telescope," Mishra said.

According to VisionCare's Patient Information Booklet, the FDA tested 206 subjects before approving of the IMT, most of them Caucasian, with an 89 percent success rate six months after surgery.

Kinkade said that roughly 40 more patients have received the implant following the FDA approval.

"It took a long time to go through clinical trials," Kinkade said. "They wanted to make sure it was safe."

Kinkade is a low-vision optometrist with offices in Litchfield, Danbury, Cheshire, Farmington and Manchester. He has been practicing for 30 years and dealing specifically with spectacle telescopes for 20.

Spectacle telescopes are what they sound like: a small, square telescope a little smaller than a quarter is attached to the top of a patient's normal prescription frames. He or she can use the glasses normally or lean them forward to take advantage of the telescopic lens.

One issue with the implant is that the procedure can only be done on someone who has a cataract that has not previously been operated on. The implant only goes in one eye, usually the more dominant eye, Kinkade said, and that eye gives a magnified image for distance, while the other eye is used for global, general seeing around. Candidates for the implant must be 75 or older.

"It needs to be someone pretty alert, cognitive, who knows what's going on," Kinkade said. "My job is to determine which eye it should go in and if it's medically necessary and if they will benefit from it."

The IMT costs roughly $15,000, but is supported by Medicare, unlike the telescope spectacles, which cost between $2,000 and $3,000, according to Kinkade.

Kinkade and his team, consisting of cornea specialist Mark Milner, retina specialist Dr. Nauman Chaudry and occupational therapists. Kinkade said that they need to do some therapy before surgery and lots of therapy afterwards to get the patient to relearn how to see.

Following the surgery, the patient will spend the first few days with a bandage over the eye that was operated on and have to apply eye drops for the first few weeks.

"There's some healing there but they're not physically impaired," Kinkade said. He added that it takes about three months for patients to see some functional gains and up to about a year for them to learn to best use the IMT.

Reach Ryan Flynn at 860-489-3121, ext. 345.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story referred to the treatment program as CentraVision instead of CentraSight. More information on the treatment can be found here. One of the team members, Dr. Nauman Chaudry, a retina specialist, was omitted from the original story.